After some amazing passion seen across the board from fans regarding the release of Yakuza 3, SEGA is proud to announce that the fourth installment of the Yakuza series is heading west, and will be releasing exclusively on the Playstation 3 in the spring of 2011!

Yakuza 4 also builds on the style of the original Yakuza foundation by adding three new playable characters, each with a distinct personality and fighting style. They all have connections to the Tojo clan – but what those connections are, and what they mean with regard to a man named Kazuma Kiryu, is just one part of what will truly make things interesting.

Finally, we’d like to let you guys field questions to the man whose name goes hand in hand with the Yakuza (or Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) series himself – Nagoshi-san! Write them in the comments below, and with a bit of luck, your question will be among others asked after next week’s E3!

Good luck, and we hope all you Yakuza fans out there just found your day got a little brighter. If you’ll excuse us, that plush cat in the UFO Catcher at Club SEGA has been making fun of us all morning, and it’s about time we showed him our perception skills.

On the Europe website, you can ask Nagoshi-san questions about yakuza 4. Even though this is the board for america, I’d like to just ask a question anyway and maybe he will answer it or somebody from SEGA.

- Will we get Downloadable Content?
- Since it’s taking another full year to localize it, will EVERYTHING that was in the Japanese version be included? I read on the Europe board that the hostess girls will be back, but what about Ping Pong uncut? As well as Answer x Answer?
- I don’t care about the box art that much, but it would be nice to not have a half face again, in this case 4 half faces.

And since sales have been good for yakuza 3, can you really start considering localizing Kenzan? While it is another “Ryu Ga Gotoku game”, (or Yakuza), the whole Samurai and sword fighting aspect might be more appealing, you never know.

Yes, very pleased. No cuts though just because we don’t get Japanese culture, or time constraints, please?
I haven’t finished Yakuza 3 yet, either, I was savouring it in case it was the last Yakuza EVAR! O_o
If no EU release, will import, if that’s okay?
Cheers!
Osu!

ask him how he goes about creating such an emotionally involving experience. i was a hot teary mess during the closing chapters of Yakuza 3.

also, was there some conscious homoerotic subtext in kazuma and rikiya’s relationship (i forget his name off the top of my head… the Ryudo family member who becomes Kazuma’s #2). because i appreciated that!

the scene where they checked into the lover’s hotel was hilarious and sweet. was concerned they’d make kazuma flip out or make some anti-gay remark, but they kept it classy and light. was definitely pleasantly surprised by the game’s handling of that scene.

This is a pretty stupid question, but is there any way we can change the color of the subtitles? With just white, the text was sort of hard to read in the last game. Any chance of that sort of customization being available? Thanks!

Despite many similar questions that most of them asked regarding NO CUTS in Yakuza 4… Will the contents AND MORE IMPORTANTLY(!!!) BOX ART remains FAITHFUL TO ITS COUNTERPART, JAPANESE BOX ART? I HATE SEEING CGs on YAKUZA 4. Let it be original and beautiful artwork grace on its box art for here.

This is fantasic news, it easily made my day! I am pleasantly surprised to see the game announced early on. Thank you so much, SEGA!

The question I would like to ask Mr. Nagoshi-san is:

In the Yakuza series, one of the highlights is the ability to walk around a highly detailed and realistic interpretation of Japan. We have seen much diversity from the heavy city life of Tokyo and Osaka, to the peaceful, more rural areas of Okinawa. What inspired you to recreate these specific areas of Japan? Do you have any ideas as to other areas we could explore in future Yakuza installments?

By now those of us following and most importantly for you and your investors BUYING the games know the story and have a pretty firm grasp on Japanese culture and the Yakuza. Leave in the Pachinko, Mahjong, and Hostess clubs. If you HAVE been reading our responses to 3 I think SEGA should know our feelings on the matter and we should start NOW letting the company know. Or maybe the people we raved at before are allready gone and flipping burgers at Smiley Burger.

I think everyone here can aggree with me that WE know what was cut, have an understanding of what was cut and can understand the content if left in. Am I right?

As western gamers finally got to appreciate Yakuza 3′s story a few months ago, the nature of the story and the direction that Kazuma Kiryu’s character development become a pretty divisive point of contention amongst fans, with many complaining over all of the orphanage quests. Some found it heart warming and touching, while others felt it didn’t jive with Yakuza 1 and 2′s stories.

When making these games, do you have complete directorial and narrative control over the development of these protagonists, or do you hand over the reins to the writer that’s on-board for the project? Fans have blamed the change in hands of writers between 2 and 3 being the primary reason for the change in mood. Do you agree with this sentiment, or do you stand behind the decisions that were made for Yakuza 3′s story?

well that near to impossible but why would sega of america consider other consoles when they can’t even release it properly for the PS3? It’s kinda funny too that they sounded so proud when they said that we get the hostesses this time round.

but it’s exactly these types of exclusives that make each of the consoles unique and worth owning, it would be retarded if every consoles releases the same game.

I don’t know if it’s too late to ask Nagoshi a question, but here’s mine:

It seems that every installment of the franchise always gives more to the player to do, but going back to the original game and ongoing to the sequels, were there any mechanics are elements of the game that you wanted to put in the game(s), but couldn’t?

Come on SEGA, I’m as happy as anyone that we will be seeing Yakuza 4 released in the UK/US, but PLEASE! don’t cut stuff from the game this time around, we all want to play the full game, not a butchered version like Yakuza 3!!!!

Speaking of Yakuza 3, any news on restoring all the missing content yet????

yakuza 4, a’? …now i have been a fan of this series from its start..but what a buzz kill i had drinking Patron after i planned on finishing the yakuza 3 story and straight hit those hostes clubs …my sources had informed me of content cuts but i chose not to hear them ..i was forced to face reality when i had seen the hostes club marked on the map but inaccessible …now even with all this eye candy shooting my way..i’ll let some other dumb ass spend money on such a butchered game…i liked the beatiful females…why cut that out instead of cutting out any other portion…i would love to head out to japan to pick up the “japanese version “…hell i would rather just be left lost in all them beautiful females out there but i dont have that option…with all this happiness going bout that U.S gets a 4th insertion into the world of Japan from SEGA’s yakuza…it is quick that we tend to forget what cuts had been made to a mature rated game…i will sit back and see if yakuza 4 will be the same as yakuza 3…if all content is there..then SEGA…u have a customer

Yakuza3 was great, my first Yakuza game actually. Reminded me a lot of Shenmue. For the 4th one i really don’t want to see any more cuts. I understand there’ are cultural difference between the east and west, but Yakuza scene itself is already an unique cultural experience.

So seems i´ll just have to keep my personal boycott of sega games until further notice, makes me a bit sad really as there is quite a few titles i´d want to play but ohh well not like there is a shortage of other great games out.

So aslong as you keep doing stupid descicions i´ll keep on not buying anything from you period.

Not preordered and definitly not a buy as it seems you will be pulling the same stunt this time too just to a lesser extent but still bah you sure know how to anger people.

Thanks for not listening once again i´ll see you the day you learned your lesson altho not likely in my lifetime it seems!

i really don’t care about host clubs or any cut contents.it doesn’t matter for me i am gonna buy it anyway because of Kazuma Kiryu.What we want now is YAKUZA KENZAN with english sub.Please SEGA give us happy news with the beginning of 2011! Your company issued that if the sales of YAKUZA 3 be good in west than you may plan to release KENZAN in west,now keep your promise.YAKUZA KENZAN,YAKUZA KENZAN,YAKUZA KENZAN

If you are really into the game you’ll notice things missing or what really bothered me and my Japanese friends was when they “cut” out a hostess club, etc they left the glowing pink box on the map. Honestly at this point I get more answers out of SEGA Japan than I do from their US counter-parts.

Leave the content in. If you have interest in this type of game being “Japanese life/underworld oriented” You should be someone annoyed with a lack of being able to stick to what was created.

With the economy being what it is I would think SEGA would like to keep as many fans as possible and keep as much capital flowing in. Listen to your fans Sega!

Does anyone know if the game is still in Japanese with english subs? I watched the “new” trailer which was in English so I am making sure its still in Japanese and that its only the trailer thats got an English narration